Europe leads the classic team competition Ryder Cup against the USA with a whole 12–5 ahead of today's decisive singles matches, which will only be eleven in number since the Norwegian Viktor Hovland has been forced to withdraw due to injury.
Such a large lead has a team never had ahead of Sunday's decisive match since the current format was introduced in 1979. The USA must take 9.5 points in eleven matches to complete a historic turnaround.
”Shut up”
The question is whether the starting position leads to fewer spectators taking themselves to the Bethpage Black course outside New York. The regular price for a ticket was around 7,000 kronor, but on Saturday evening, tickets were sold for less than 3,000 kronor on the online secondary market, reports the news agency AP.
The Ryder Cup audience – whether the competition is decided in the USA or Europe – usually does not behave like regular golf spectators, but this edition has seen parts of the home audience go hard against the European players.
When you play a Ryder Cup away, it's always a big challenge. People can judge for themselves if they (the fans) went too far or not. I'm just proud that we managed to win today, despite everything we had to go through, said the Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, according to AP, on Saturday.
When world number two McIlroy and Shane Lowry, Ireland, won in best ball against Justin Thomas and Cameron Young on Saturday evening, the ball was followed by extra police protection.
Earlier in the day – during the foursome match – McIlroy had reacted when the audience shouted at him just as he was about to hit a shot.
Guys, shut up, shouted McIlroy.
USA captain Keegan Bradley defends the home audience to some extent.
I think the fans have been passionate, he says.
You'll always have some who cross the line, and that's a shame. I was glad to see that our players tried to calm down some of them.
”Partly our fault”
At the same time, it may have been a lot of frustration, he means.
It's partly our fault. We're not playing at the level the audience wants to see. They're angry and they should be, says Bradley.
Europe's captain Luke Donald sees it as an extra spark.
I think it almost looked like Rory and Shane enjoyed the tough environment out there, says Donald.
Reigning champion Europe only needs to take two and a half points in today's twelve singles matches to take the Ryder Cup trophy home across the Atlantic.
Swede Ludvig Åberg will play at 18.46 and will face Patrick Cantlay in his match.
Europe leads 12–5 against the USA ahead of Sunday's singles matches. Only eleven matches will be played – the Norwegian Viktor Hovland is injured and therefore his match against Harris English is cancelled. The teams will thus receive half a point each.
Ryder Cup is played at Bethpage Black outside New York. Today's matches and start times (USA's players first):
18.02: Cameron Young–Justin Rose
18.13: Justin Thomas–Tommy Fleetwood
18.24: Bryson DeChambeau–Matt Fitzpatrick
18.35: Scottie Scheffler–Rory McIlroy
18.46: Patrick Cantlay–Ludvig Åberg
18.57: Xander Schauffele–Jon Rahm
19.08: JJ Spaun–Sepp Straka
19.19: Russell Henley–Shane Lowry
19.30: Ben Griffin–Rasmus Højgaard
19.41: Collin Morikawa–Tyrrell Hatton
19.52: Sam Burns–Robert MacIntyre
The classic team competition Ryder Cup between Europe and the USA is decided this year at Bethpage Black on Long Island, a few miles east of central New York.
Initially, pair play is played – four foursome matches are followed by four best ball matches on both Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, the competition ends with twelve singles matches.
A total of 28 points are at stake. In the event of a final score of 14–14, Europe will retain the trophy as reigning champion.
Europe leads with 11.5–4.5 ahead of Sunday's conclusion.
The first Ryder Cup was played between the USA and the United Kingdom in 1927. In 1973, the United Kingdom was joined by Ireland in the team, and from 1979, it is the USA and Europe that meet.
The competition has been decided every other year with three exceptions: a break during World War II and two editions that were postponed by a year (2001 due to the 9/11 attacks and 2020 due to the pandemic).
